Soul Eater: The Beginning
by Fire Red Fox Queen
Summary: The story of how Maka and Soul met. Currently a one-shot, but that may or may not change.


**This is my first Soul Eater fic, so it may not be that great. In fact, I've only recently become a fan of Soul Eater, so I'm not entirely sure of the details. If there's anything I'm getting wrong, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd tell me. Anyway, I've kind of taken some things from Soul Eater Not! and put it into the story since this story is about Maka and Soul's beginning at Shibusen. Oh, and in case you get confused, Chris=Soul. I've made it his real name before he enters Shibusen. For now, this will only be an open-ended one-shot since I have a million other stories to work on. I may end up writing more chapters in the future, but only if I get other things done first.**

* * *

Chris stood in the midst of a group of excited weapons, yawning and wishing he was back at home. Just because he had the capability of being a weapon didn't mean that he wanted to go to a special school and learn how to be a hero. He was too cool for doing extra work like this. He tiredly pushed his white hair out of his eyes and squinted up at the freakish-looking sun. What was up with that weird face, anyway?

Shibusen itself was just too weird. Come on, who models a school to look like a cluster of skulls with spikes shooting out of the middle one? Plus the massive candles to either side were too much.

He sighed and directed his attention to the surrounding students again and glanced over to the group of weapon wielders off to the other side of the school entrance. They looked just like the weapons group, chattering and nervous. One of those kids was going to be his meister at some point. Vaguely, Chris wondered who it was going to be. It didn't seem like any of them would be a good partner for him.

* * *

Maka was at the edge of the meister group, admiring the school that her mom graduated from. Someday, she was going to be just like her mom. She was going to be at the top of her class and make her weapon into one befitting Shinigami: the Death Scythe. And the Death Scythe that Maka made was going to surpass her father, the Death Scythe that her mom had created.

The way to become a top-class meister wasn't going to be easy, of course. In order for a weapon to become a Death Scythe, that weapon must first eat ninety-nine pre-Kinshin souls and one witch soul. Each soul wasn't just going to present itself for eating. Maka would have to fight together with her partner in order to obtain those souls and the witch was going to be especially hard to fight since a witch could use magic. Still, Maka was certain that she could do it. She had to.

Suddenly, all the students fell silent as the doors to Shibusen swung open with a loud creak. A tall shadow slipped out of the school, and an ominous feeling fell over the assembled kids. Suddenly, Shinigami lifted his face and chirped brightly, "Hi! Hello! Welcome to Shibusen!"

Maka swayed a bit in shock. This was was somehow very anti-climatic. Wasn't Shinigami supposed to be the strong god of death who had founded Shibusen to fight witches and Kishin? This person in a ragged black robe and a ridiculous mask couldn't possibly be Shinigami, right?

* * *

Chris made a face. Was this guy serious? There was no way in hell that that was Shinigami. How uncool. Judging from the shocked whispers spreading, the other weapons thought so too.

"As you may all know, you have been gathered here at Shibusen to become fighters who can defeat the witches," Shinigami continued. "You need to form teams of two consisting of a weapon and a meister. That's pretty much it!" Chris was pretty sure that he wasn't the only one whose eye was twitching. What kind of welcoming speech was that? Unbelievable.

Shinigami disappeared back into the school and a teacher stepped forward. This time, it was a strong-looking black guy. "My name is Sid, and I shall be your future homeroom teacher. For now, I shall be showing you around the school. After the tour, you will have a chance to choose your partner, although there's no need to rush and do it today." He turned and the students obediently fell into pace behind him.

The inside of the school was surprisingly normal. Chris had been expecting the inside to feel like a prison, considering the exterior. The only thing that was odd about the school was that the weapons had to share a room with their meisters. That included boy and girl teams. Chris hoped he'd end up with some hot girl. Maybe this school wasn't so bad, after all.

* * *

Maka didn't like the sharing rooms rule, but she could see the necessity behind it. Weapons and meisters had to have a strong bond so that they could become an unstoppable team and eventually achieve Soul Resonance. She could only hope that she could end up with a girl partner.

* * *

"Well, here's the room where you will be practicing combat for awhile. As mentioned before, you don't have to choose your partner right away, but this session today will help you decide who your partner will be," Sid said as he swept his hand into an empty room. The only piece of furniture was a wooden table off to the side. This was the combat room? Weren't there supposed to be something like dummies and weights and punching bags? Not that Chris wanted to work with any of that stuff, but still.

"Since it's only your first day, we aren't actually doing any training. We are just measuring your ability as a weapon and a meister," Sid said, as if he was answering Chris' unspoken question. "First, however, you need to take a paper from that desk over there and fill it out." Sid pointed to the wooden desk. Were those papers there before?

"All it's really asking is if you're a weapon or a meister. If you're a weapon, write what type of weapon you are by your name. If you're a meister, write your weapon preference down. You also must put down what name you wish to be called from here on. It can be your name or you can choose to have a fake name."

Someone handed Chris a paper and pencil, and he looked at the form with mild disdain. The first day, and there was already writing involved. Still, he filled out the information.

Weapon or Meister? (Weapon, Scythe)

Name: ...?

Chris thought about his name for a few minutes. He was tempted just to put his real name down, but hesitated. This was going to be a name that he was going to be known by for the rest of his life. A boring name like Chris didn't suit a cool guy. But what else could he put?

Then he had it. Weapons ate souls, right? So why not be named Soul Eater? It was a lot cooler than Chris. He wrote it down and passed his paper back down the line where Sid collected them and set them back on the table.

"Alright, now I want you to form two lines. Left side are the meisters, the right are the weapons. Everyone have a partner? Good. I want all the weapons to try forming and the meisters will try to catch them. It sounds more simple than it looks. If your soul wavelengths aren't compatible, then the meisters won't be able to handle their weapons. Plus, the weapons may not be able to transform."

That was news to Soul Eater. Normally, it was pretty easy to transform for him. Was it really that hard for others? "Begin!"

Soul Eater focused on his partner. It was some nerdy-looking guy with round glasses and two spikes of hair shooting off to the sides of his otherwise bald head. He really hoped that he wasn't going to end up with this guy. "Well, what are you waiting for?" the jerk barked. Yeah, this clearly wasn't going to work out, but Soul Eater still complied.

He easily dissolved and reformed as a scythe in his partner's hands...only to be dropped right away. Soul Eater landed painfully on the floor and growled in annoyance. "What the heck?!"

"That should be my question!" Nerd-kid said, holding out his scorched hands.

"Don't look at me!" Soul Eater protested, turning back into human form and going back to his line.

* * *

Maka looked at her partner, who was shaking nervously. The poor girl tried to transform, but couldn't. She was trying so hard, but wasn't getting anywhere. It was painful to watch. Since Maka wasn't a weapon, she couldn't give any advice either. There was nothing else to do, she looked down the line to see how the other groups were doing.

Some were pretty good together. The weapons were immediately accepted by the meisters. But there were a lot of others who were incompatible For example, the baldy and that weird scythe. They weren't compatible so the baldy dropped the scythe onto the floor. The scythe reformed into a human and snapped at the bald nerd before going back to his line.

Interesting. That scythe had the easiest transition that Maka had ever seen for a weapon. Totally different from this girl, who had her eyes squeezed shut and was red in the face from effort.

"Switch!" Sid called. The girl who stood in front of Maka opened her eyes and shuffled dejectedly to the right.

It was some time before that interesting scythe came in front of Maka. Maybe it was due to his slouch or the way that his red eyes carried a blank stare behind snow white bangs, but Maka felt a serious I-Don't-Care vibe. That was the complete opposite of her, unfortunately. Such a shame. Maka wouldn't have minded a scythe. Particularly one that's so good at transforming. She still had to give a shot, though, so she got into position.

There was a second's worth of time were the white-haired scythe kind of blurred and disappeared. The next minute, he was reappearing in her hands. It was so fast that Maka didn't have time to tighten her grip. The scythe was slipping out of her hands, but surprisingly, it wasn't because of incompatibility. It was because Maka was being careless.

Maka didn't have time to think. Her hands seemed to move on their own, moving and twirling the scythe around before stopping expertly in the stance that she should have in the first place.

The scythe vaporized and took human form in front of her again. This time, an amused grin crossed his face, showing a mouthful of sharp teeth. It was kind of freaky, but Maka forced herself to ignore it. This was the best pairing that she had all day by far, so she would just have to bear with the human side if it came to that.

"Maka," she said, holding her hand out.

"Soul Eater," the white-haired boy said, taking her offered hand. Maka didn't find the name to be that amusing, but it was pretty fitting.

* * *

Soul Eater examined Maka. She wasn't a knock out, but her looks weren't half bad. She was flat-chested, but he could work with that. Plus, she was the only one who could keep a grip on him. It seemed like Maka was going to be his partner from now on.

"Is it fine to just call you Soul?" she asked.

"Hm? Sure," he replied.

"Would you be my partner?" Maka asked suddenly. Soul was kind of expecting it, but he still couldn't help his shocked reaction. It almost sounded like a confession. He shook the thought away.

"My thoughts exactly," he answered confidently.


End file.
